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May 30, 2013

Little Fun Frock Simplicity 1797

Hello quirky little fun frock!

When I purchased this pattern, Simplicity 1797, I had intended to whip up view C with the darling little bow. I decided that this would be another wonderful dress for a April Johnson Project Runway fabric (I mentioned my love of the fabric collection here).

This lovely stretch cotton has a printed rattan-esk weave pattern in purple and lavender. In my scrap box I found a remnant of textured poly suiting that complimented the colors and I felt that it would break up an allover print dress and tone down the severity of the print on my tiny torso. Naturally I was meant to cut and construct view A opposed to view C. Yet I was sad that I had to loose the little bow, or did I?

I added a bow to the back! It is at the top of the lapped zip. I did not use the bow from the pattern as I found it too plain. I chose a bigger double bow from a 1960's pattern.

I took the liberty to add quite a few additional details of my own. First I lengthened the sleeves and added binding to their hem. I also added additional mock piping to the waistline.

Speaking of binding, I loved the construction process for the bound inverted pleat. Prior to attaching the skirt to the bodice but after the hem is completed, the inverted pleat gets bound. You must hem the skirt first, this worried me because altering the hem after adding the binding was NOT going to happen, so I had better get the length right.
First the skirt gets pressed along the fold line for the pleat. The binding is stitched 3/8" from the fold

Then press the binding around the fold to the back

Turn in the raw edge of the bias strip, also turn up and tuck the bias binding at the hem line. Pin, Pin, Pin.

And finally edge stitch the binding.

All in all the pattern went together like a dream, I would totally recommend this pattern for a beginner it was easy yet contained great details. These fabrics are so easy to work with, a tough sturdy cotton and a bias cut suiting that did not ravel. Both great choices for beginner sewers.